When State Sen. Becky Whitley made clear that she wasn’t running for re-election, two Democratic state representatives — both far younger than most New Hampshire legislators and eager to serve in higher office — dove into the race to fill her spot.

More than a month later, the race changed. A third Democrat, one with decades of experience in public office and advocacy — and lofty Concord connections — announced she’d also seek the nomination.

With three contenders vying for the open seat, it is the state’s most competitive Senate primary. With a lot of overlap on their stated policy priorities, the race will come down to who voters want as their voice.

County Commissioner Tara Reardon, who served as a state representative from 1997 to 2009, argued that she is the only person in the race with the experience and relationships to effectively fill the role. She said she jumped into the race because it was lacking a seasoned candidate.

“You should be a veteran by the time you get to the Senate,” Reardon said. “I really encourage folks, especially after one term in the legislature, to get some leadership experience there, to stick around for a while.”

State Reps. Rebecca McWilliams and Angela Brennan both say they have a track record of passing legislation and forming relationships with fellow lawmakers. Also, with Democrats’ newfound energy and optimism at the top of the ticket, Brennan said voters want someone new and without any “baggage” or “conflicts of interest.” Reardon’s spouse, former longtime Concord Mayor Jim Bouley, is a lobbyist in the State House.

“People are looking for a new era of politics where we focus on getting things done, not the backroom deals, the arm twisting, the divisive rhetoric and dirty politics of the past,” Brennan said. “I’m working to earn this job.”

McWilliams said she has the expertise where it matters the most: in the field, on key housing and environmental issues.

“I’m never going to say anything bad about the other candidates I’m running against,” McWilliams said. “I am definitely the most experienced on the issues that matter for this Senate race. I have hands-on housing and environmental experience that’s going to translate immediately to getting bills passed starting in January.”

Brennan, who just finished her first term as a state legislator representing Bow, is the chair of the Bow Selectboard, an active party organizer and a stay-at-home parent who got her start working for Planned Parenthood.

McWilliams, an architect and construction lawyer who lives on a Concord farm, first entered politics as a climate activist. She has spent three terms in the State House and served on a transportation policy committee for the city of Concord.

Reardon, on top of her time as a state representative, is a real-estate lawyer who most recently worked with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. She served briefly an at-large Concord city councilor, a Concord School Board member, and was the former head of the state Employment Securities Commission.

At the top of the ticket, Democrats across the country have become energized by the hopefulness that comes with passing the baton to the next generation more than the leverage and wisdom from decades in public service. In this race, establishment Democrats are leaning the other way.

Reardon is a lifelong Concord resident; she remembers watching legislative sessions from the visitor gallery as a kid with now U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, whose mother was a state senator. Since she announced her candidacy, several high-profile local Democrats — including Kuster, who lives in Hopkinton, former Gov. John Lynch, and Concord Mayor Byron Champlin — have publicly endorsed her.

Alongside her endorsements, Reardon has raised more than double the campaign contributions of either opponent — though all three have roughly the same number of individual contributors.

Reardon’s contributors include the state employees’ union, New Hampshire Realtors, the Granite State Teamsters, prominent downtown developers, Kuster, Lynch and RMH NH, a Nevada-based company that owns a casino in Seabrook and is working on housing development there. A string of current and former Concord city councilors and Concord School Board President Pamela Walsh also made donations.

Reardon said her relationships not only in different levels of government but in the community and non-profit sector mean she has the connections to deliver solutions.

“People generally want their problem solved. If they know that you know somebody that might be able to connect them with that, then they’re happy about it,” she said. “There’s sometimes this undercurrent of, ‘things are happening on the sly,’ and I don’t think that’s true in Concord.”

Reardon said her husband’s work doesn’t compromise her service: because lobbyists have to disclose their full client list and legislators have to disclose any conflicts of interest, there are transparency safeguards. She also noted that voters elected and re-elected her to the House multiple times under those terms.

“My husband was a lobbyist before I met him, and he was a lobbyist while I was in the House for 14 years, and while I was on the school board, and while I was a county commissioner,” she said.

Her relationships and experience are her greatest assets, she said, especially when it comes to housing issues.

“All of those relationships — 30 years’ worth of relationships — I could go home and not do anything with them. Or I could tap into those for the benefit of the citizens of District 15,” she said. “Whether it’s in the political arena or the community service and being on nonprofit boards: I would love to be able to use that for good.”

Talking about what’s at stake in this race, McWilliams dove into policy details. It’s how she got into politics: going door to door during her undergrad years in Rhode Island, helping people to understand the truths and myths about wind turbines.

As an architect who went on to become a construction lawyer, McWilliams sees two major issues on the table in the next session as squarely in her wheelhouse: housing and sustainability. Combining climate advocacy with her professional expertise, she ran for office because she saw the opportunity to apply her knowledge on a widespread scale.

“Once you get bit by the political bug, you start to realize: this is an opportunity to make a bigger impact than just one school, one project,” she said. “This is, like, policy for the entire state about gray water recycling.”

She also said she has personal experience as a parent with two pivotal issues: reproductive rights and childcare access. She and her husband first moved to Concord, she said, because his parents were in the area and could help care for their young children. She nearly died as the result of an ectopic pregnancy, a condition that requires a medical abortion to resolve.

Her strength in the Senate would be applying that background to negotiate solutions everyone can live with, she said.

“I have the technical knowledge, I know the issues, I know the players, and I also know how to work with the team,” she said. “On the Senate side, often the bills are bigger, and everybody gets a piece of the pie. I think that there is a path forward to negotiate on some of the things that are priorities for Democrats, even in the minority.”

She positioned herself as a continuity pick, an inheritor of Whitley’s style.

“I feel confident that having worked with her and having seen how the job is done for six years, I can step in and do it,” McWilliams said. A slate of current state representatives, former gubernatorial nominee and executive councilor Andru Volinsky have endorsed her and agree.

When Brennan describes her candidacy, the words “enthusiasm,” “fearlessness” and “persistence” come up a lot. She grew up in New York’s Hudson Valley, and attended community college before completing an international relations degree in Washington, D.C. with an eye for entering politics. With her sights set on making a difference, she took her first job at Planned Parenthood.

Brennan highlighted her efforts as an organizer and her ability to energize both voters and her fellow officials — she’s been endorsed by the New Hampshire Young Dems and was recognized by the National Conference of State Legislatures as its 2023 emerging leader in New Hampshire.

“We’ve seen an entire shift in energy that’s noticeable when I’m knocking on doors. We’re in this new era of politics where we’re reminded about hope and joy and the possibilities for our future,” Brennan said. “I bring to the table a welcoming energy, an enthusiasm that can inspire people — something that’s been missing when we look at the same old, same old.”

She began her time on Bow’s Selectboard ensuring that all meetings, as the pandemic waned, remained accessible remotely. She’s continued that public access work in the House, she said, through voter rights advocacy.

Brennan described her style as a legislator, as building on common ground where it exists to pass legislation without compromising on her own progressive ideals. She wants to use the relationships she’s built over her first term to make the House and Senate more cooperative.

She also refutes the idea that she’s too new for the Senate.

“It’s not a lack of experience. It’s a different experience,” she said. Beyond her time in local government, she said, her working-class upbringing gave her lived experience that better connects her to the constituents who need an advocate the most.

“I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “I’ve been through the same struggles as so many people in our community. It’s taught me a lot, and it’s given me a different way of looking at some of the legislation that comes before us.”

District 15, which covers Bow, Hopkinton and Concord, went to Whitley by nearly 30 percentage points in 2022, meaning that whichever Democrat wins this primary on Sept. 10 is likely to carry the seat. The outgoing senator has previously said she will not make an endorsement in the race.

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaug hlin@cmonitor.com